


The Aftermath

by fractalteeth



Category: Ace Combat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Continuation, Canon character disappearance, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Possible Character Death, Post-Continental War (Ace Combat), Post-Game, Post-Game: Ace Combat 04, Video Game: Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, Where are they now?, character disappearance, deathfic sort of, i know it's not that good it's only a second draft im sorry please dont hurt me, this has probably been done before and way better, tying up the loose ends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:08:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25827964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fractalteeth/pseuds/fractalteeth
Summary: A series of vignettes seeing how the cast of Ace Combat 04 are getting on after the Continental War.Canon divergence: The Usean and Belkan wars convinced the international community to demilitarise, meaning the Lighthouse War never happened.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue: Yellow Thirteen

The weeks had faded into months, and the months had faded into years. Nobody knew what happened to Yellow Thirteen. Eyewitness accounts of his final battle were contradictory and ambiguous, and Mobius One’s gun-cam footage only showed an SU-37 moving out of frame, weeping smoke. The search for debris was brief and hasty, and only managed to fish out a tailplane and half an engine.

Nothing from the fuselage and cockpit, and nary a shred of clothing.

But still, the idea of the noble, respectful “hero of the sky” meant that Thirteen still had enough mystique hanging about him to remain in the public eye. Ultimately though, there was always something else, and whenever the public interest was on the verge of an earnest search, an investigation or discovery, or perhaps another war criminal, would shift the focus away. And so Thirteen remained, frozen between life and death until his friends and family were forced to shut him out of their lives, to assume that he would never come home again.

In early 2007, the Erusian government gave Thirteen a funeral with full military honours, at last closing the book on the fighter pilot Yellow Thirteen, ace and leader of Yellow Squadron. As for the man himself, the chunk of flesh with hopes and dreams thrown into a tin can to die a fiery death, the general assumption is that he was either reduced to a pile of hamburger meat when his plane exploded in midair or bailed out never to return to the sky, settling down under a new identity. But this is a mere speculation, invented for the sake of closure by a shell shocked public. The most anyone would ever know on that matter is that he had simply vanished into the very skies he used to rule in that last mad waltz of contrails and fire, as if departing to the next life with his purpose fulfilled at last. Perhaps that was better than being discovered as a slick of charred red splattered over your instrument panel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, my first time writing on this site. Pretty short as chapters go but I'll try to make them longer as I go on.


	2. An Update

Don't worry, the fic's not dead! Took me a week or so to get an idea but it's, like, half written. In fact, here's the first bit. I'll finish it soon!

North Sea, near Newfield Island

Once, she proudly flew Erusia’s sky. Now she lay scattered across the ocean floor. Her wings were gone. One had been torn off of the fuselage by a Sidewinder missile and the other simply came off when her disintegrating carcass smashed into the North Sea. The fuselage itself had come apart like sodden pastry, her propellers had snapped off and pirouetted into the depths . The Bear’s remains settled on a flat, silty area of the seafloor, leaking oily pollutants into the surrounding waters. Undeterred, blotches of algae cropped up on Grey 3 like watercolour paint splattered onto a canvas, blurring the jagged edges of the wreckage with their fronds. Fish now dart between her cockpit grilles, and retreat into the tangle of broken equipment whenever a predator comes near. Humans leave the wrecks well alone, save for the few they raised for scrap metal. Trawlers aren’t even allowed to go near them for fear of catching toxic fish. A few marine biologists have expressed interest in the unique ecosystems that arise around wrecks, but their studies have generally remained low key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, it's basically just r/tiredtanks: The Chapter.


End file.
